Shrikant karve's blog

Return to Chaos

2006-08-23T00:27:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Find one of my poem below. Feel free to drop any feedback you have.

Return to chaos

I always questioned

the sunlight coming from Sun

after my birth

From where do you gather

all this energy

to instill life on earth?

The answers were always

convincing for some

and perplexing for others

and the quest continued

to weave a web of information

to make a cap out of feathers

few of the questions

still intrigue me

and I am at a loss

Is it meaningful

to find out meaning any more?

and I return to chaos

I have seen this happening

in numerous numbers

things just fall out of place

My mind just rolls down

the mountain of sanity

to a valley of folly, with no trace

Do I have to accumulate

meanings through out my life

to decipher the goal

or I can just be silent

in a respite from questions

to peace my soul

Life seems to be wonderful

without a prior question

and a subsequent answer

It is an essay

with no context

and nothing to refer

Heart of a system

2006-04-01T22:55:00.000-08:00

What is heart? It is an engine which acts as a activity hub for transporting blood throughout the body. Isn't it really interesting to see that the amount of awareness which people have acquired about this organ, its humungous. Why? As per what I know, the awareness I got because I heard a lot about Heart failures. I came to know about heart even when it wasn't even known to me if it was an organ in my body.

Looking from an organism point of view, a collapse of transport system means in short, demise of the organism. And I believe that this holds true for any dynamic entity including a person, society and a nation as well. A nation will definitely be efficient if its transport system is good. Look at the case of India compared to US. To me, it looks like India is suffering from Angina pain for more than half a century now!! Shame on us that eventhough we have excelled beautifully in medical field, we don't recognise its importance to our nation and society.

From an Ayurveda point of view, Heart being the basis of all that is HAPPENING in body or is active in body, it represents VAATA. Vaata's importance can be easily understood by this. When I hear my elder family members saying "My vaata is troubling me", I don't know how seriously they see this. If you have a vaata issue, you are bound to be serious about it. It can cause a very immediate and urgent distress call any day. Also to normalise any vaata problems, Salt proves to be a better medicine. What does this "Salt" signify to a society?

Angiography

2006-02-22T08:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was in hospital and did witness an angiography case. After seeing the entire film about the blocks in coronary arteries, I kept on wondering about how the technology has sneaked into medicine this far. Hold on, I am not getting into a huge catalogue of events and happenings in history of medicine but am just keen on the way, man is losing his appreciation of human discoveries and inventions. I am pretty sure, a majority of people on this earth must have been through this exercise and have seen and forgot this event.

If an entity becomes a usual incident for a man, he loses his appreciation of the technical wonder that lies beneath. This loss of inquisitiveness seems to be like a diseased state which also has now become a ubiquitous scenario I bet.

All the while I watched the film, I just kept on wondering on how only coronary arteries are shaded or darkened and no other artery is visible clearly, the blood remaining the same in all of them. Ignorance is not bliss everytime!!

Relationships and technical writeups

2006-02-15T19:48:00.000-08:00

I came across a question today morning as to how can technical entities be described/documented. Currently what I have seen is that a particular object is taken and all nitti gritties are told about the object in detail/overview. This approach is very boring and will require 2-3 reads by a person to actually grab everything of it. There can be another approach, wherein an object can be described to the individual seperate entities with which it interfaces.

In a simple case, a dll is explained by the interfaces it has. No dll is described saying here are the possible actors and the dll will look like this to them. The case be a much complicated one where suppose Linux kernel needs to be documented (This is no offence to tech writers of tldp), the challenge is huge in a way that there are multiple entities having different characteristics and attributes. The way to describe is to describe it like a team of people where behavioural pattern of these people (software components) are different. Each person may act differently to different people. This will better the description in the following ways:
1. A clear cut understanding of a complete software component is obtained since it is viewed from different aspects.
2. Problems in interactions will be better emphasised and probable resolutions can be obtained.

The theme is that people are more attuned to understanding other person's behaviour rather than understanding software component completely. There is a branch of science I know called cybernetics where computers are made to work the way human's think. This is the reverse side of that which will describe computers in a language that humans understand better.

The approach needs to be refined where different levels of explanations are provided and the levels are revealed one after another. A man first enters a relationship very formally and goes to become very intimate in later times. Exactly this, can be the theme. Reveal the levels one by one.

One of the concern might be that doc'ing would become obscure with this approach, but anyway there is a relationship between a writer and reader which is established when a person read the book/article. The approach is to refine this relationship.

Virus and human mind

2006-02-15T04:41:00.000-08:00

One of the challenge that I always witness is to make the other person listen to you. The approach that I always take is that of a virus. Virus makes its entry in a comp and then starts spreading its arms and eventually take its control. Similarly if the other person is persistently not in a listening mode and thinks that what you are talking is plain b.s., take a chill pill. Start asserting with the person in whatever statements he makes. Most of the time, people of this attitude always start advocating the other side of the coin, what was so hard for you to put in his head. But alas, most of the people don't fall in this category. These people when asserted start feeling a sense of superiority and they start feeling comfortable talking to you. Soon they will start weighing your opinions and eventually will come to a point where any statement you make, they will agree. Now this strategy works most of the time. This is more like a Virus.

There are still a few genuine cases where this fails too. If you are married, you will know this already. :) For these cases, start weakening the other person by asking him questions, normally those which he doesn't have answers to, the questions need not be concerned to the point you are trying to make. Automatically, you have made the other listen to you. (Don't try this on your wife. Atleast don't come to me with questions, if you do give a try!)

I seriously think you can defeat a human mind in a way similar to a virus attacking your comp!

Alchemy of Opposites

2006-02-13T23:05:00.000-08:00

This morning, I was talking to Madhav and he was mentioning to me about one QA Mgr who can drive one of the projects hard from QA side. The fact was not that he didn't want to manage QA part but wanted to have a person to keep a check on the things that he might miss, being more on the dev and delivery side. The thought intrigued me! So a person is trying to empower another who may eventually be hindering his delivery dates (No, I am not discounting the profitable outcomes of it).

Yes I heard somebody saying, we have artifacts to specify the requirements and QA prove to be more as distractors. Actually as per my opinion, docs are dead and engines are required to keep a check on proceedings. It is possible to ignore docs and specs but not possible always to ignore QA folks!!

I guess I now understand the meaning of phrase "With great power comes the great responsibility" (The famous one from Spiderman movie). Its just simultaneous empowerment of two opposite attributes/qualities in a single individual.

Nostalgia

2006-02-09T22:08:00.000-08:00

Today it is going to be a sad day for me as my team is leaving Calsoft and going to Symantec. Being the first person in the IMLogic India team and having seen it grow to a current size of around 15 and accomplishment of 3 product releases, it is going to be tough for me to let them leave. I think of thanking them for their contributions in the product and for their helping hands in my personal/professional activities. It was really great working with you.

I wish all the best for your future endeavours.

Piracy and yada yada

2006-02-01T22:48:00.000-08:00

I wanted to watch HERO movie again, a few days back and so thought of borrowing it from Nippun who has a collection of some good movie DVDs. Nippun welcomed me and did lend me the DVD saying "Don't copy it since I do not deal in piracy". The statement went really smooth in me and I really liked it. The very next day, I asked Nippun as to how is he going to ensure that I have really not copied the DVD and answer came that its on FAITH.

Things started to roll in my mind. What is Nippun trying to tell when he says "Don't copy"? Though the caution sounds to be a first substantial incentive for NOT copying/pirating, will it really stop borrower from copying it? Or it would only result in the borrower appreciating Nippun's opposition to piracy.

The key may lie in empathizing with borrower. What would he be thinking when he is pirating. Is the need (which seems at be much lesser probability) compelling him to do the act? Or is it a habit which is sneaking its way in borrowers head. Is it the aftertaste from the earlier misfortunes or injustices happened to him that are compelling him to go against order (in this case, against lender's will)? What if a person feels and believes that music should be free. He will never understand that he going against order.

Would the same statement/word of caution mean same to each of the person whom Nippun lends the CD? Since needs, habits, culture, morality, thinking power, conscience of every individual is different, can a same word of caution mean same to everybody? Few may appreciate, but few others may get offended, some may even stop talking to him. So is this word of caution really going to help Nippun in any way?

Questions are many and Quest is on!

Back to blogging

2006-01-23T00:55:00.000-08:00

I had been away from blogging for a loooong time now!! I know there would be very few people keeping a tab on my blog. :) So folks, I am back now with loads of interesting things to post and hoping that the blog gets more and more interesting to those reading them.:)

Life's uncertainity

2005-01-24T00:20:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my friend Shailesh, had an accident. While jumping on a railway line from platform, he broke his foot ankle joint. Just a very minor mistake and he landed himself in a huge trouble. This started a train of thoughts in my head. Life is full of uncertainities. Man can counter this uncertainity with Insurance or contingency plans but the disconnect that happens with your life, nobody can fight against.

My firend now would spend 1 month in hospital or in his home, lying on his bed for most of the time. The changes that would happen on his mental plane cannot be undone. The aftermath of this forced rest can be good or bad depending upon how he takes it. It can be considered like a trip to ooty where he would like the change to happen willfully or it would be like a stay in prison where it would be just plain disgust and frustration whiling away his brain cells. Now it all depends on the creator's will as to how my friend would consider this mandatory rest.

My heart is broadcasting good wishes for him. I believe that there is the creator who may happen to hear this and would come to change this disconnect for my friend's good.

Duality principle in astrology

2005-01-20T05:12:00.000-08:00

In hindu horary astrology, Sun and Saturn are the two planets performing opposite functions.

Sun: This is the creative principle. Sun is the source. It denotes father. It gives strength and power. Man can go higher and higher because of sun. It gives leadership quality.

Saturn: This is the destructive principle. Saturn stands for sufferings and pain in life. It denotes isolation. It denotes desertation.

Now if EGO (The biggest hurdle in spiritual progress) is taken as the pivotal point, shani seems to be THE benefactor. Sun gives the leadership and packages it with ego. A leader feels that he is big. There is fine line between a good leader and a proud leader.

If you are alone, if you are a isolated, if you are not connected to world, how can you be proud of anything. Shani makes sure that you go pass the EGO hurdle. Hence people who have s good shani, are very humble. Those who have a weak or bad shani, get insulted, get diseased, get demotions frequently. Shani thus ensures that you don't become proud and egoistic.

This happens espescially with Leo moon rashi. Leo rashi is governed by Sun and hence people of this rashi feel proud for no reason or a very small reason. You need to go into their shoes to really understand what they feel. If this person has bad shani, he is bound to have a problem where he seeks a higher designation and he is made to work on a lower one. There is a disconnect between this person and outside world. A difference in perspectives. I see a duality principle here.

Holistic assimilation of a process

2004-11-22T21:40:00.000-08:00

Assimilation of a process is a difficult task as it needs to be crafted out very carefully. In a typical software product company, changing a process means a high risk area. This may even make a product fail, in market. So there are a few things that need to be thought and acted upon before and while implementing the new process.

1. Defining an array of issues which would be fixed by implementing this process.
2. Presenting the process to the management and getting approvals before proceeding.
3. Creating mock ups of this process. (This may be a mock project implementing this additional process)
4. Changing the documents defining the overall processes followed (including the assimilation process).

Implementing all the above things during a product life cycle is not possible always. Change in process is required when problems start cluttering up. This is a perfect time to actually worsen it even more. Since priority of the task is high, enough time is not available with the process owners to test the process itself.

Certain considerations can be made while conceiving the idea of a new process, which would highly increase the success rate of the process. The whole theme runs around a particular philosophy that every matter has an anti matter.

To unleash this philosophy, every process should have an anti-process associated with it. To exemplify, consider a case of availability of carts outside shopping mall. These are provided for customers to avail easily. This can be a part of the usability to customers. The carts are made available to people at the parking lot itself or near the entrance to mall so that they can be easily available to customer making their shopping a good experience. This is what can be called a process.

The anti process in this case would be a process to again stack them back into their place after usage. Few of the things below can be done to address this and I will give few improvisations which can be done as it is carried forward:

1. A system can be implemented by which customers need to push a cart in stack before leaving. Though this would hamper usability and hence may not be a very good idea.

2. An employee can be retained who will just keep an eye on the status and number of carts in parking lot and stack them up after regular intervals. This would bear a cost which is not desired.

3. To evolve it further, there can be a set of employees which are given periodical assignments of cleaning the carts up in a round robin manner. This seems to be a better idea. Now the regular interval fixation can be determined depending upon how many customers visit per day, may be quick for weekends/ holidays as more customers visit on these days.

The above example is relatively simple but has some very important thoughts. If anti-process is weak, number of carts in the parking lot would be more and it would directly affect the user experience. Though it may not very forthcoming while designing the process (not anti-process), the difference lies in how we conceive the process itself.

It should be understood what a process would do and how it would affect in the overall project. If the anti-process is dealt separately, then it too needs be designed carefully and tracked easily.

One anomaly is, product may get fat with code day by day but if documentation and knowledge mgmt is weak, the maintenance of code becomes increasingly complex and more people oriented rather than process oriented. Knowledge mgmt is not a productive activity (money earner) and normally overlooked but which may kill the product eventually. If the anti-process is not strong, the producing activity eventually suffers.
Also with any assimilation process that is designed, an annihilation process needs to be designed as well.

Self obviation

2004-10-04T01:33:00.000-07:00

On Knowledge Management Process

One of the process in a software industry, it may be Dev or QA, is knowledge mgmt. Basically idea revolves around jotting down the findings as people proceed with using the processes and products.

The worst effect of religiously following KM can be removal of the employee from his position. This is possible since the employee has already delivered what he can. The best practices the employee has followed or those he has come to understand after hard toiling, are jotted down too which the company would find extremely useful.Consider a case when the employee is ejected out of the company with a short notice, the Contradictory perspectives are as below:

Employee's angle of vision:I have put my best for this project, how can I really be thrown. This is the worst thing that can happen to me. Henceforth I would not put my efforts so religiously which would harm my survival itself. (This is what I call, you learn bad through bad experiences.)

Employer's angle of vision:The company has come to a situation where it needs to cut down the costs to survive. It needs to eject out those employees without whom company can't survive.

Both the employee and employer are correct from the circumstances and perspectives. I don't think, this is a very much hypothetical example since shutdown, acquisitions etc happen in software industry now and then. In this case, the employee who doesn't really do proper documentation can't be removed since there is still a dependency.

Hence the question that arises is "Shall an employee follow practices which would obviate him eventually". There are certain good aspects to this as well, like getting a new better opportunity anytime because of lesser dependency. Though this doesn't seem to be a reason sound enough to ignore the above question.

Talking to myself

2004-09-28T03:12:00.000-07:00

See this dialogue happening in my mind and probably in everybody’s mind. Scenario is that people near me are NOT doing their job responsibly.

Mind A: I need to give these people a kick? Why don’t they do it correctly? How can they do it so irresponsibly? Shall I go ahead and kick their asses and sternly tell them about what they need to do?

Mind B: Ok but what would you tell them?

Mind A: You stupid person, how come you do this?

Mind B: I guess then what you wish for would never be accomplished. Normally people cling to words rather than to the meaning. It would also depend upon actually who says it. Being the youngest and most inexperienced, how can anybody bear your strong words? They would definitely get hurt which you don’t wish for...right?

Mind A: That’s true, but they should not be doing what they are doing. And if they happen to cling to words, let them do that. Why should I be care for that?

Mind B: True. But anyway you are caring for them. Otherwise there is no need to say that. So if you want to tell them, you need to be aware that they can get easily get hurt by. Keep in mind that having a proper intention is not the only thing in world. There needs to be a proper way to attain this. If population need to be controlled (This is a good intention) you can’t go and slaughter people.

Mind A: So is it that I am the person who should keep a control on what is to be said and what is not, when the other person is the one not doing his job. This is ridiculous.

Rahu and Ketu (Continued)

2004-08-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

Sun stands for Truth and clarity. Rahu tries to go against it by becoming untruthful and hazy. To make it clear, actors and actresses in the silver screen have a good Rahu and normally either with Moon or in Dasham Sthana (House of career). Sun represents King and a Father, both are responsible personalities. Whereas Sun in conjunction with Rahu shows a situation where father of the person is not in very good terms with him and somehow the responsibilities were not met by his father enough. So the source or initiation of responsibility in an individual is marred due to Rahu affecting Sun.
Sun stands for responsibility and hence a person who is responsible cannot be away from his workplace for long time and even if he does, he cannot be remain peaceful since his sense of responsibility doesn't keep him at peace. In case Rahu hence, since being aiding to lack of responsibility takes a person away so that he is unable to perform his duties / responsibilities. This is why Rahu's right position also leads to foreign travel. Also it can show away from his home etc.
Moon's conjunction with Ketu on a full moon causes lunar eclipse. So Ketu marring functionality of moon, taking an individual to dryness, away from bindings (emotional) etc.Rahu in conjunction with Sun causes Solar eclipse, marring the individual in clarity of thought, makeing him irresponsible, receining an axe from authorities etc. Actually these conjunctions have varying effects as per the house in which they are situated.

Rahu and Ketu

2004-08-20T02:58:00.000-07:00

I am studying Indian Astrology for some time now. somehow I could not come across much information about Rahu and Ketu. So I think of putting my contemplation about these two Grahas (from Navgrahas from Indian Astrology text books).

Rahu and Ketu both stand oppsite to Sun and Moon. As there is vast difference between Kaarakatwa of Sun and Moon, similary there is a difference between Rahu and Ketu. Rahu stands against Sun whereas Ketu stands against Moon.

Ketu is considered to be Moksha karak, thats the sole reason for it to stand against Moon. Moon is a Graha (Astrologically speaking) which symbolizes Love, emotions, care etc whereas Ketu shows disinterest in wordly affairs. Moon tries to put a human in binding whereas Ketu tries to free himself. For spiritual seekers strength of Ketu should be commendable in their Patrika. Ketu in Moksha sthana (12th House) denotes high probability that the person has a spiritual inclination (Though other planets like Sun, Jupiter and Saturn too would have their say in it). Ketu is fourth sthana generally tells about detachment from Mother or from his very near dear ones. Fourth house is the house of midnight which is a time when everybody is definitely at home and cosy along with families. It is time when you pull over a blanket and get a sound sleep (which denotes sukha which fourth house again stands for) Hence Ketu in fourth house generally detaches you from this sukha or rather person doesn't seek such kind of sukha. (Take a case when person is striving to get ahead in life and is ready to toil day and night to rise up. Here even if somebody offers him a bed and blanket to sleep, he won't appreciate much!!)

A strong Moon with NO Drushti (sight or vigilance) of saturn or Ketu generally make the person to stick in wordly affairs more and has an emotional entanglement with his relatives and dear ones.

There is an interesting fact that Mksha Trikona consists of three houses Fourth, Eight and Twelvfth. Here even though Fourth house is governed by Moon, it is included in Moksha Trikona (This is interesting thing to understand and thinking on this would lead a man definitely more on what is structure of our Indian Astrology and how it is built)

Would continue on this next week....

Purpose of life

2004-08-17T23:35:00.000-07:00

This question has haunted me for a long time now. Once upon a time few years back, after going through long think hours and sleepless nights, I came to an analogy which appealed me for some time. The analogy is that of a person hitting a nail with a hammer. Does a nail know as to what he is supposed to do? Here I am assuming nail as a human being and person as the one who can is the superpower or nature or GOD whatever can be called. Nail cannot think of the purpose of his life but it is upto the person as to where it should be pierced into. Hammer symbolises the circumstances around you which play a very important role in changing you. I have already
written about how circumstances and surroundings can change you.

The above example leads ultimately to what is called "Karmayoga" which is primarily dealt in Gita (one of the respected hindu scriptures). In Karma-Yoga, the principle is that you should do what you are supposed to do. Now what is supopsed to be done can form a book altogether and would be dealt in a different write up. (many eminent thinkers have already done that, I am just jotting down my experiences, thoughts and conclusions..)

Some how I again started feeling that this was not a correct analogy and something was wrong. A human being is not a nail who has no emotions, no intellect, no life. He is a living organism who can think. The quest is still on.
The fact that I am trying to find an analogy to realise the purpose of life itself may be hindering my search. Who knows? Thats the problem acquired because of my earlier experience.

Evolution of perception

2004-08-12T01:50:00.000-07:00

Since last two days I have been rethinking on some of the opinions that I have got imprinted on my mind and how am I drifting (or learning!) from my earlier views about life and relationships. Till this point, I realised that I have been really governed by other people rather than myself. I would explain it below:

A person has some defined set of ideas and convictions of himself which form what is said to be his perception. He would make his decisions as per these perceptions.

This person always comes in contact with other people. He tries to keenly observe the surroundings and happenings around him though unconsciously. The learnings soon get merged in his current perception and his perception changes. Thus now he sees world with a new perception. The delta in perception may be small or big depending upon the circumstances. When a child is born, he doesn't have any prejudices or a perception (atleast that's what I feel), but opinions are then built in the same way while he grows.

So the entire preception of a person depends upon his surroundings!! What he feels like HIS is not his own but some other's.

Chinese movie Hero and Moksha

2004-08-08T23:51:00.000-07:00

Very recently I saw a Chinese movie named “Hero”. In the movie, the director and story writer come out with a revealing truth.

The ultimate aim or goal of a swordsman is non-violence and peace for all.

The above statement is very beautifully, artistically and so logically arrived by DIrector that it almost seems to be an unquestionable truth to the spectator.
Doesn’t this contradict the whole purpose of a swordsman!

I have been through some of the philosophical and spiritual literature, The below statement is made in all the books almost invariably

Once a human attains Moksha he doesn’t get a next birth.

Doesn’t this statment question the existence of mankind? If every individual goes for a realization of self or attains Moksha, how would human race continue to exist?

Does the ultimate goal of anything goes against it?

Paradox in perspectives

2004-08-06T03:09:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I am just writing few of my findings about the paradox in perspectives that I have noticed while going through it. I will take two examples as below to illustrate my findings.

The first is of a person feeling very confident and smug about the way he does things, about the way he presents them to the external world. He looks at the world with a perspective of "Everything is possible and I can do it".

Now he starts his career and then stumbles upon something which he doesn’t expect. Here he starts to muddle his ideas about his self. After a few more stumblings, he starts trembling(don’t take in literal sense) due to insufficient confidence. Again this is not because of the ideas sprung from his mind or intellect. This is because of the ideas borrowed from others. Unfortunately this is what people call EXPERIENCE. Then such outlook continues and ultimately the man loses all his initial intellectual belongings and values. He then forms and becomes a part of what is called a SOCIETY!

The second example is that of a man who is smug and confident. He starts on his own and whenever he stumbles upon something, hears from his within, what he needs to do, thus not responding to the otherwise influential suggestions of others. The outcome of this is that the man stumbles a lot, has an argument with almost every other person he meets (This is probably the case since people in society try to be in herds). The result is that he doesn’t learn anything from others. He forms an element of society which doesn’t take part in its creation. These people are not desired by society and hence are normally kept away.

Which of these personalities are right and true!!??

Actually in both the cases, the person does not gain anything at all. The first person loses confidence which is like losing yourself and the later one is driven away from society eventually.

Again this is not a deliberate decision made by the person since it is governed by the instincts which are not governed by him. I would continue on this sometime later.